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The Brown-eyed Girls of Jersey
BEFORE my bark the waves have curled | |
| As it bore me thrice around the world; | |
| And for forty years have met my eyes | |
| The beauties born under wide-spread skies. | |
| But though far and long may be my track, | 5 |
| It is never too far for looking back; | |
| And I see them,—see them, over the sea, | |
| As I saw them when youth still dwelt with me,— | |
| The brown-eyed girls of Jersey! | |
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| They are Quakers, half,—half maids of Spain; | 10 |
| Half Yankees, with fiery Southern brain; | |
| They are English, French,—they are Irish elves; | |
| They are better than all, in being themselves! | |
| They are coaxing things,—then wild and coy; | |
| They are full of tears,—full of mirth and joy. | 15 |
| They madden the brain, like rich old wine: | |
| And no wonder at all if they ’ve maddened mine,— | |
| Those brown-eyed girls of Jersey! | |
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| Some day, when distant enough my track, | |
| To the Land of the Free I shall wander back; | 20 |
| And if not too gray, both heart and hair, | |
| To win the regard of a thing so fair,— | |
| I shall try the power of the blarney-stone | |
| In making some darling girl my own,— | |
| Some darling girl, that still may be | 25 |
| Keeping all her beauty and grace for me,— | |
| Some brown-eyed girl of Jersey! | |
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